Nine Years Later
by HecateA
Summary: It should be a very exciting day, but they're too tired and also covered in spit-up to be exciting anymore. Oneshot. Written for MC4 Spring Bingo.


**Well friends, here's some fluff I wrote while in class, in which I kind of slipped a reference to blvnk's beautiful, beautiful art. Seriously, go look for her "Third Time" illustration but to be honest, I'm obsessed with all of her. She draws happy post-war Harry and who doesn't need that? Hope you enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: **The following characters belong to J.K. Rowling, and this story derives from her original works, storylines, and world. Please do not sue me, I can barely pay tuition.

* * *

_**Spring Bingo entry information:**_

**Space Address : **2A

**Prompt: **Copper

**Word Count: **1613

* * *

**Nine Years Later**

Over a week ago, when Harry had squashed down in bed after putting Al back to sleep (correction: putting Al back to sleep _again_), he'd noticed that Ginny was still awake.

"Hey," he'd said reaching over to take her hand. "While we've got five minutes without anybody screaming, we should talk about what we're doing anything next week?"

Ginny laughed into her pillow. "Bold of you to assume there's something more exciting we could do on our anniversary than be in bed by 9:00 p.m."

"Great," Harry said. "So glad we're on the same page."

She turned to her side and smiled, and Harry found the energy to lean in and kiss her. She wrapped her arms around him and pulled him closer, playing with his hair.

"Are you okay?" Harry asked her. "I tried getting out of bed quietly so I wouldn't wake you up…"

"I'm okay," Ginny said. "Just tired."

"I can stay home tomorrow," Harry offered. The bureaucracy at work was particularly draining at the moment, and he was nearly always looking for an excuse to stay home instead of dealing with a new form to fill or a new policy to memorize.

"No, no, you have Padma Patil's baby shower to go to. It's okay," Ginny said. She yawned. "Just tired."

"Alright," Harry said. "Try to get some sleep, okay?"

* * *

When Harry and Ginny had gotten married, it had been a massive secret. Other than Minerva McGonagall, Andromeda Tonks, Gwenog Jones, and the immediate Weasley family, nobody had known what would happen. Most of their guests had been under the impression that they were attending a dinner party when in fact they'd turned up at a wedding reception. Further than the fact that Ginny should ideally be the bride, Harry had had little or no specifics for the wedding other than the fact that he didn't want a single _Daily Prophet _or _Witches' Weekly _reporter to know. The coverage after the fact had been massive in an effort to compensate for the surprise, but Harry was satisfied in having spent his wedding day without a single request for an interview.

They'd timed it for the day of their first kiss, when Gryffindor had won the Quidditch world cup. This was Ginny's way of consolidating her very strong opinion that they hadn't truly been broken up while Harry was off breaking Horcruxes, which meant that this year was their ninth anniversary, technically.

He woke up and got ready for work as quietly as possible, only waking up Ginny when he was on his way out the door and had a cup of tea to leave on the nightstand for her. He turned on her lamp and gave her a few seconds to stir in the light.

"Happy anniversary," he said kissing her forehead.

"Happy anniversary," she said. She reached on her nightstand and groped around for a bit before she found what she was looking for—a small case that she put in his hands.

"Do you like it?" Ginny asked. "It's copper, for our copper anniversary."

"I love it," he said slipping the simple band on his wrist.

"What do the runes mean?" he asked.

"It's an old rhyme for safekeeping," Ginny said.

"Thanks for that," Harry smiled. He summoned his own present for her across the room and passed Ginny the ring box.

"It's a family ring," Harry said. He'd been quite proud of himself for remembering how she'd told him they were quite nice one day. There were three gemstones on it; one for each of them, one for Teddy, one for James, and one for Albus. Set in copper as well, of course. They were quite domestic and boring, as far as following anniversary traditions was concerned. Then again, they had to be normal in at least _one _way.

Ginny smiled, but looked a bit off.

"Thank you, it's beautiful," she said.

"Are you okay?" Harry asked.

"I'm fine," Ginny smiled, slipping the ring on her finger. "Have a good day at work, okay?"

"Okay," Harry agreed, at which she kissed him quickly.

* * *

Work dragged on painfully, and his lunch break wasn't even long enough to pop home because of the dragon-egg smuggling ring.

Even if it was only Thursday night, Andromeda had a wedding to get to in Northern Ireland and had asked Harry to take Teddy in early. So, after work, he swung by Tonks House to pick up his godson, who had been tasked with packing his own bag and had instead scattered his belongings throughout the house's second floor.

Still, they got him packed and home eventually. Ginny was happy to see him, and Jamie was happy to see Teddy, having decided that they were going to play with blocks first things first three days ago, when he'd ecstatically learned that his favourite playmate was going to be spending more than his usual weekend over.

Teddy was more than happy to comply, and the two were chattering happily while Harry leaned over to kiss him.

"Go change first," she said. "Also, I made the executive decision to order pizza for supper. You have no say or veto in this."

"Wouldn't use one," he said kissing her cheek.

"Pizza?" Teddy asked from the living room. "Best Thursday Ever!"

Harry laughed as he swung upstairs to get changed. From the bedroom Al, who was teething, burst into tears. Trying to change faster, Harry misbuttoned his shirt about five times, meaning that Ginny had calmed Al down by the time he got downstairs anyways.

He scooped the baby out of Ginny's arms and kissed his head.

"I hope you've been good today, Al," Harry said.

"He has," Ginny smiled. "_Jamie, _however, got into my makeup. I had to Scourgify some strange, strange places."

"I'm sure he looked great in that peach colour you love so much," Harry said. Ginny laughed.

Dinner went well other than some tears about pizza dropped on the floor—cheese down. A mix of toys previously scattered on the living room floor sustained the boys' interest throughout the night, as Ginny helped them put together wooden railroad tracks and puzzle pieces with moving pictures. Harry bounced Al on his lap and his favourite toy, an unfortunately noisy one courtesy of Uncle George, distracted him enough from his teething. He and Ginny shared a quick look and when she nodded, he quickly waved his wand and all the clocks in the house sped up by half an hour.

"Time for bed!" Harry declared.

"What?" Teddy asked looking at the clock.

"Wow, time sure flies when you're having fun," Ginny said getting up. She hauled Jamie back to his feet. "Alright, let's go pick out some pajamas, kiddos…"

With Al propped up on his hip, Harry wrapped his spare arm around her waist and put his chin on her shoulder.

"I've got them, okay? Teddy always helps Jamie with bedtime, we'll be okay."

Once he'd talked her into taking a bath, he managed to coax all three boys—though not in their respective beds. Jamie and Teddy begged to share, and Harry caved. They were hugging rather adorably when he finished their bedtime story and closed the door behind them, leaving on both of their nightlights.

He paused on the landing, and once he was sure that everything was relatively silent and peaceful, he checked in on Ginny who was reclining in the bathtub surrounded by plenty of bubbles, her hair up in a bun and her eyes closed. He kissed the top of her head and crouched on the bathtub, arms leaning on its edge.

"Can I get you anything? A _Quidditch Weekly, _some wine..?"

Ginny turned to face him.

"I think I'm pregnant again," she said.

"No wine then," Harry said after a beat.

She laughed. "Such composure, Mr Potter."

He kissed her before she could inevitably use that line to make fun of him somehow.

"Really?" he asked.

"I think so. I know that kids are exhausting, but I've been feeling like such shite, it kind of… hit me last night, that this was how it was when we had James. I know, Al is still so young, and we said we'd wait, and the boys are a handful right now maybe we really shouldn't add another one to the mix…"

"That doesn't matter right now," Harry said, pushing a stray lock back behind her ear.

Ginny laughed. "Happy copper anniversary, by the way. We've been together nine years, we may have accidentally made another child even if we already have one Teddy and two sons, the highlight of our day is pizza for supper, then we lied to our children to go to bed earlier."

"I wouldn't have it any other way," Harry said.

"We're ridiculous and domestic," Ginny said. "I never thought I'd be the type."

"And I never thought I would be so happy for so long," Harry said. "I'm happy where we are if you are."

She put a hand behind his head to pull him closer for a kiss, leaving bubbles in her hair.

"Did you want me to run to the pharmacy or the Apothecary's to...?"

"It can wait until Saturday, when Mum's here to watch the boys," she said.

"Okay. Might have to get your ring adjusted then too, if you're right. What do you want me to do for now?" Harry asked.

"Join me?" She suggested.

"That I can do," Harry promised.

He knew he'd been serious when he'd told her all of this, but when she leaned back and put her head on his chest, he just _knew _how right he was.

"This is so nice, we can maybe wait until 9:30 to go to bed," Ginny said. He laughed.


End file.
